FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - Rheinmetall shares benefited only temporarily on Wednesday from the major tank alliance for Ukraine. In Xetra trading, they temporarily rose to a record high of 232 euros. But then the gains faded and in late trading the shares even turned negative. In the end, they lost around one percent to 220.90 euros. The shares of defense electronics manufacturer Hensoldt initially climbed to a high since April 2022, but also exited trading with a small loss. Both shares have been benefiting massively for months from developments in the Ukraine war.

The market has recently already begun to price in the scenario that is now occurring in the Rheinmetall share price, wrote analyst Sven Weier of the bank UBS. Calculating with 100 Leopard tanks delivered to Ukraine, the additional sales potential from ammunition and spare parts for Rheinmetall could amount to an estimated 1.4 billion euros. Assuming a margin of 25 percent, this would mean an operating profit (Ebit) of €350 million. However, he said these assumptions were optimistic, especially since there were other manufacturers of ammunition for Leopard tanks. The UBS analyst did not specify a time frame in his estimates.

Meanwhile, analyst Alexander Wahl of Stifel Research put the significance somewhat into perspective because the tracked vehicles are produced by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. "Although we believe that the resulting sales potential from the deliveries is insignificant for Rheinmetall, we note that the group is the only qualified supplier of Leopard 2 tank ammunition," the expert stressed. In this respect, it is already possible that the delivery is related to significant sales and profit potential./bek/niw/tih/jha/